Perhaps you’re afraid you will be perceived as old or you think your hearing isn’t poor enough for hearing aids? Maybe a friend has hearing aids and never wears them? There are many reasons why people decide not to have their hearing tested and not to purchase hearing aids. Allow me to share several reasons you SHOULD have your hearing tested and you SHOULD invest in hearing aids if recommended by your audiologist.
Hearing loss can be a significantly impairing condition that affects all areas of one’s life. Research paints a compelling picture of the cognitive, social, psychological, and health effects of hearing loss. Some conditions known to be associated with hearing loss are: dementia, cognitive decline, brain shrinkage, depression, and higher risk of falling. For those who are in the workforce, uncorrected hearing loss has a negative impact on overall job effectiveness, opportunity for promotion, as well as lifelong earning power. There’s no question that optimized hearing is critical to effective communication.
Why wait when you can hear better now? The number one reason people purchase their first set of hearing aids is they realize their hearing has changed. The second reason is pressure from family members who are negatively impacted by the individual’s hearing loss. In most cases, hearing loss occurs gradually. By the time you recognize a need for hearing aids, your quality of life may have deteriorated unnecessarily. The average age people first wear hearing aids is age 70, even though the majority of people with hearing loss are below age 65 and nearly half of all people with hearing loss are below age 55.
Remember that everyone’s situation is not the same. Just because hearing aids may not have worked well for a friend or family member, doesn’t mean they won’t work well for you. A critical factor in the success of hearing aids is the audiologist. An audiologist is a hearing healthcare professional with a doctoral level degree. This means your audiologist has had no less than eight years of college education and, in most cases, has passed multiple national or board certification examinations. The provider is just as important, if not more so, than the particular hearing aids themselves. Your audiologist is critical in the facilitation of the rehabilitation process.
What your audiologist and a good set of hearing aids can offer is a chance to communicate with loved ones and to be active and plugged-in to life again. We challenge you to be brave, be bold, and choose to live a life rich with sound!